Doing trimming in Quicktime Player

[DanL]

OK, I've been using Quicktime 7 to routinely do audio editing. Worked great. After OS upgrade, QT7 isn't supported, and I need to use Quicktime Player. Should be easy, right?

What I do is listen to the audio, and determine the TIMES at which I want to trim. In QT7, I'd just set the tabs to those beginning and end times, and crop out the audio between them. Poof, it's gone.

In QT Player, I can also establish those times, but when I want to trim, it gives me a stupid VU-meter plot without time stamps. Allegedly, as you pull the yellow bars in the from the sides to mark those times, you get the time displayed above the yellow bar. In Big Sur, I no longer see those times displayed. Gee Louise, I don't want to trim by using a VU display!

If I want to crop out minutes 2:00 through 4:00 in an audio file, how do I do it with Quicktime Player??? How can you see the times at which the yellow bars are sitting?

 

[Nukeban]

Welcome to the 456 billion people who were sad to see Quicktime 7 Pro discarded.

The new Quicktime is more powerful and is a player better suited to the higher resolution videos which are increasingly common. So for those who use Quicktime only to watch video (very many people) it's a step forward.

As for editing jobs, there is a relatively simple solution. Create a partition on a drive where you install an earlier version of OSX. I edit with QT 7 Pro in Sierra every day, works great.

The new Quicktime is not intended for editing jobs, would suggest you not aggravate yourself trying to use it for that.

If you're also editing video, consider Hitfilm Express, a free video/audio editing software for Windows and Mac.

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They have a very helpful forum. I've been using Hitfilm daily for about 5 years now, very happy user.

 

[DanL]

Thanks. I was dreading that. No I don't want to reboot every time I want to do audio editing. I'll check out Hitfilm Express. Thanks for the recommendation. Actually, I already use Audacity, though that has a raft of bells and whistles I don't need.So maybe I should just get used to using it for what I want. Very disappointing that Quicktime isn't good for editing anymore. Garageband is a possibility too, but that's awash in music stuff.

 

[Nukeban]

First, I don't really use the new Quicktime, so maybe I'm missing something, and others can provide the advice you requested.

Second, maybe you wouldn't have to reboot if you just used an older version of OSX that still runs QT 7? Do the newer versions of OSX provide you with any must have features?

Third, as I tried to indicate, a great many people have regretted the demise of QT 7, so you are not alone.

Your comment points to one of the beauties of QT 7, it's not loaded with a zillion features that you don't need, thus it's easy to do the simple stuff.

Hitfilm is probably not the solution if audio editing is your only interest.

You can't be the only person with these needs, so some time spent searching the Mac App Store and elsewhere may reveal a dedicated audio app that is simpler than some of the alternatives.

 

[DanL]

As I said, I think Audacity is going to work for me. It certainly has the capability. It's a matter of ignoring all the irrelevant stuff. Newer versions of OSX are generally more capable in many things, including security updates. On that scale, QT7 is sort of a minor issue. The answer is never to settle for an obsolete OS.

That is a little funny that in "upgrading" QT, Apple made it LESS functional in many respects. But it happens ...

 

[Nukeban]

That is a little funny that in "upgrading" QT, Apple made it LESS functional in many respects. But it happens ...

Yes, like what they did with iMovie. And a lot of other stuff...